Pinewood Shepperton Sees Revenue Rise 16.5%

LONDON — Revenues at Pinewood Shepperton, one of the world’s leading production services companies, rose by 16.5% to £64.1 million ($109 million) in the past financial year, which ended March 31.

The group reported profit after tax of £5.4 million ($9.19 million), up from £1.8 million ($3.06 million) the year before.

The largest production to be hosted by the group’s main facility, Pinewood Studios, in the 2013/14 financial year was Disney’s “Cinderella.” The largest pic at Shepperton Studios was Marvel’s “Guardians of the Galaxy.” Other major productions at the sites included Fox’s “Exodus” and Marvel’s “Avengers: Age of Ultron.” Pinewood is now the production base for Lucasfilm’s “Star Wars: Episode VII.”

“The company has made an excellent start to the new financial year, enjoying good visibility for the year as a whole. Demand for the studios’ U.K. facilities is at an unprecedented level,” chief executive Ivan Dunleavy said.

September saw the completion at Pinewood Studios of a 45,000 sq. ft. studio facility, Q Stage, and earlier this month, the U.K. government granted planning permission for a £200 million ($340 million) expansion program at Pinewood. This will see the site double in size with the addition of 24.7 acres of new facilities, including 12 large stages, workshops and production offices.

Among the key developments in other territories was the completion of the first phase of construction at Pinewood Atlanta Studios in Georgia, U.S., which is a joint venture with Rivers Rock. Other developments included the start of operations at Pinewood Iskandar Malaysia Studios, which saw immediate occupation by The Weinstein Company with the Netflix series “Marco Polo,” and Pinewood Dominican Republic Studios, which opened in May.